The New Experience

The New Experience

Acts 1:5-8

I. Introduction

a. The Holy Spirit is necessary in our Christian walk. He is the power source that drives us in our daily walk. It’s also the Holy Spirit that convicts us of our sins, and it is Him that draws unbelievers to Christ. One of the main rules of Scuba diving is “Don’t stand on your own air hose!” The truth is, many Christians do just that. Sadly, they stand on their air hose, and suffocate spiritually. All from a lack of the Holy Spirit moving in their lives. The Holy Spirit is our lifeline to God, and today we are going to talk in depth about the Holy Spirit and His ministry to us in our lives. The Holy Spirit is there for our asking. We just have to ask.

b. There has been a lot of confusion about the Holy Spirit and just what His role is down through the years of the church. The current state of the church today tends to pit more traditional, conservative Christian groups who believe that the miraculous gifts of the Holy Spirit ceased with the death of John, the last of the Apostles to die, against the more modern charismatic churches, who still believe that the miraculous gifts of the Spirit are for us today. The truth is, both groups acknowledge the Holy Spirit’s presence on the earth today, convicting men of their sins and empowering us for service in the body of Christ. Isn’t that more important? The answer is yes.

c. It is more important for us to realize the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives as believers, and also to realize His calling and working on your life if you are not a believer. If you’re a believer of Christ this morning, you have the Holy Spirit in your life; He has taken up residence with you. He’s that still, small voice that says, “Don’t do it!”, when you’re about to stumble into sin. If you’re not a believer, if you haven’t taken Jesus as your savior this morning, He’s calling you, He’s the one who brought you here this morning to hear this message, and He wants you to make a decision to follow Christ. But, he’s not going to force you, the choice is yours.

d. So, in our study today, we are going to look at the Holy Spirit. We will see in our study that the disciples of Christ were waiting for Him in Jerusalem. But more importantly, we will look at what they were commanded to do once they received the Holy Spirit, and briefly we will touch on what the Holy Spirit did through the disciples.

e. With that, let’s pray.

II. PRAYER

a. Lord God, we thank You for the blessings you have poured out upon us in our lives. We thank you for Your Holy Spirit, that you have for each one of us just for the asking, and we ask right now that you would come be among us here this morning. You tell us in Your Word, that where two or more are gathered together, You are in our midst, we thank you for that, Lord. I ask that you would bless each family represented here, and that we would have a fruitful time of study in Your Word. We also pray your blessings over the Children’s Church this morning, and ask that You would bless their service as well. Finally, Lord, we thank you for your never ending grace and mercy, and we ask that you would speak to us today, Lord, for it’s in Jesus’ name we pray…. Amen

III. Illustration

a. A lady went to a jeweler to have her watch fixed. The jeweler took the watch, and he disappeared to the back and soon returned with it running perfectly. Surprised, she asked how he could fix it so soon. He told her it only needed a new battery. Battery? Battery? No body said anything about a battery. I’ve been winding it every morning!" –and A lot of Christians don’t realize the inner power of the Holy Spirit to handle things they think they must take into their own hands.

b. The question in front of us this morning is How’s your battery? Is it full of juice so much that you just bubble over with the love of Christ busting out of you at the seams? Or is it dead and lifeless, kind of like my truck has gotten when the battery or the alternator or something goes out? The truth is, God’s desire is for you to be a happy healthy Christian. We will see today how to do that. When I am through here today, you should be able to see why the Holy Spirit is so important in our lives, and without Him we are dead and ineffective.